Authorities looking into killing of Chula Vista restaurateur

Authorities on both sides of the border are looking into the killing of a Chula Vista restaurant owner found stabbed and beaten in Tijuana earlier this week.

Huang Liang Li was found dead about 8 a.m. Monday inside a car parked in a residential neighborhood east of downtown, according to a statement from the Baja California Attorney General's Office.

He had been stabbed repeatedly and suffered blunt-force injuries to the head, according to Baja California authorities. The car, a 2006 Lexus with California plates, was registered to Li.

Li had last been seen about 10 p.m. Sunday by employees at his eatery, Mandarin Canton Chinese Restaurant on Telegraph Canyon Road, said Chula Vista police spokesman Bernard Gonzales.

Baja California Attorney General Rommel Moreno Manjarrez told reporters Tuesday that investigators were looking into the possibility that Li could have been killed in the United States and already been dead when his car crossed the border. The agency offered no updates on the case Wednesday.

Li's family went to Tijuana to identify the body, Gonzales said. According to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Li was a legal U.S. resident. Property records list him as co-owner of a house in Chula Vista purchased for $724,000 in 2007.